SMF may get second chance

Standish prison named in Governor’s proposal to house California inmates

LANSING — Governor Jennifer Granholm is negotiating with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to house inmates from the Golden State, which is suffering from overcrowding, in Michigan and the Standish Maximum Correctional Facility is one prison she proposed as a possible detention center.

“She cited the Standish facility as one of the suggestions,” said the Governor’s Deputy Press Secretary Megan Brown, adding the other facility suggested was the Muskegon Correctional Facility. “Obviously this is all about jobs for Michigan

“We want to keep our workers employed.”

An excerpt from Granholm’s letter says, “At the end of July, we will be closing Standish Maximum Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison which houses 604 prisoners. It is located just off Interstate 75 north of Saginaw in Standish, Michigan, in proximity to airports. The facility was opened in 1990 and is in excellent condition. While this is a single cell facility, it could easily be reconfigured to a lower security level and be double bunked.”

According to Brown, if the California Department of Corrections is willing to make a deal with Michigan, there could be 550 jobs saved for Michigan Corrections Officers, at the expense of the state of California.

“There will be conditions,” Brown said. “The price must be right. … The prisoners would have to be returned to California eventually.

“The details are still being discussed.”

“Some details of the discussion, are things like volume and custody level of prisoners, programming and treatment requirements, health and mental health care needs, etc. And of course – prices,” said Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) Public Information Officer Russell Marlan in an e-mail received by the Independent last week.

Some face-to-face visits are already in the works to try to help seal the deal, as a group of MDOC representatives are heading west this week.

“They (Michigan prison delegation) are heading out [Tuesday, July 7] and will return Thursday,” Marlan added in an e-mail to the Independent on July 6. “The delegation includes our Deputy Director over correctional facilities, our Chief Financial Officer, our Physical Plant Manager and someone from our health care section.

“They (California Corrections representatives) will be sending a delegation here to look at Standish and Muskegon in two weeks.”

Brown says while Michigan has had a declining prison population, mostly due to the controversial Michigan Prisoner ReEntry Initiative, that’s not the case out west.

“It’s been widely publicized that they (California) have severe overcrowding,” Brown said.

An article on the Sacramento Bee’s Web site, sacbee.com specifies how California would save by housing inmates in Michigan, as the cost per inmate per year in California is about $46,000 per year and the cost is roughly $30,000 per year per inmate in Michigan.

The savings could be beneficial to California’s goal to balance its budget for fiscal year 2010, since during a press conference that was simultaneously web cast on Gov. Schwarzenegger’s Web site on Wednesday, the Governor said he was serious about fixing the state’s $26.3 billion deficit, threatening to veto any legislation on his desk that doesn’t work towards amending the budget crisis. During the press conference, Schwarzenegger was clear that he didn’t want the budget crisis addressed “piecemeal.”

“Let’s address the entire problem at one time,” he said.

Michigan would be the fifth state to house outsourced prisoners from California if Schwarzenegger accepts Granholm’s proposal, joining Tennessee, Arizona, Mississippi and Oklahoma, where 7,600 California prisoners are being housed.

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dont let our governor fool us she is only making it look like she is doing something but in fact she is making a bigger mess for our next governor to clean up. i really hope some day she has to figure out how she is going to make her house payment or put food on the table, she has no clue what the average michigan family is going thru. she has her health insureace, car insurance, house insurance, car, phone....., paid for by us the tax payers what does she care. i would love to see the elected live like we do pay check to pay check they would never be able to do it. they would end up having a nervous break down. we need her gone, any where but here in michigan.

I don't see this as hi-jinx. California ALREADY outsources prisoners to states like Tennessee, so why wouldn't they send some to Michigan? Their prison population is double what their capacity is. They need to either release about 200,000 prisoners or send them elsewhere. I think you conspiracy theorists need to take a break for awhile. While I don't like Granholm and think she's an awful Governor, I don't think she's sitting behind a desk twirling a glued-on mustache, hatching a plan to deceive Arenac County and Muskegon residents. So let's just wait and see what happens.

I am from california and I wonder if there is a constitutional question here. Judges did NOT sentance a person to a prison out of the state. This Could be a federal issue. Saving lots of money NOT. transportation for the inmates when realeased, guards on the airplanes for every siongle inmate to bring back to California and also i would think there would have to be an incentive for the inmate and not just make somebody go to michigan.Our state is bankrupt. If they had any brains they would early realease the non violent offenders and not pay anything.Iou;s 9.75% sales tax here in Southern california.What happens if an inmate gets hurt or a plane crashes going to or from Michigan and inmates get killed. gee Millions for a wrongfull death lawsuit for every single inmate.We do not live in california We live in Mexico as caucasians are minorites and we spend millions housing these people in prisons and with there phony ids and welfare and food stamps, i wobnder why we are bankrupt.